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Retail Pricing and Print Cost

At WingSpan Press, we work to keep the retail cover price of our books as low as we can in order to make them more attractive to readers. A couple of our larger competitors want you to sell your book online for as high as $21.95 for a 300-page book. Buyers will balk at paying that much for a softcover book.

The table below lists the minimum retail pricing for books and the per-copy cost to you. You may choose to set your price as high as you think the market will bear. Changing the price will affect your royalties. Your WingSpan Press customer service representative can give you details.

Question: How do I know what the page count of my book will be?
For 5.5 x 8.5, divide the number of words in your manuscript by 300. For 6 x 9, divide by 350. Add 10 pages for front and end matter. This is just a ball-park estimate. Lots of things affect the page count in your book, including images, font, margins, number of chapters, etc. We'll know the final page count of your book during layout.

Column 1: Page Count.

Column 2: Minimum cover price.

Column 3: The per-unit cost of your book. You'll pay 50% of the recommended retail price for books you order for yourself. This figure won't change if you choose to raise the cover price of your book.

Page count

Minimum Cover Price

Your Royalty

Your Print Cost

up to 100

$11.95

$2.39

$5.98

125

$12.95

$2.59

$6.48

150

$12.95

$2.59

$6.48

175

$13.95

$2.79

$6.98

200

$13.95

$2.79

$6.98

225

$14.95

$2.99

$7.48

250

$14.95

$2.99

$7.48

275

$15.95

$3.19

$7.98

*300

$16.95

$3.39

$8.48

325

$17.95

$3.59

$8.98

350

$17.95

$3.59

$8.98

375

$18.95

$3.79

$9.48

400

$19.95

$3.99

$9.98

425

$20.95

$4.19

$10.48

450

$21.95

$4.39

$10.98

475

$22.95

$4.59

$11.48

500

$23.95

$4.79

$11.98

A hardcover with dust jacket adds about $7 to the production cost of your book, meaning your cover price has to increase to about twice the softcover price to earn the same profit. Many authors opt to create both softcover and hardcover books, but reserve the hardcover edition for their own use. Ask your customer service representative for details.

*Author Alert: Ideally, a self-published book should not exceed 250-300 pages. Any additional net profit is quickly offset by reduced sales due to the higher cover price of the book. (Buyers are most comfortable with trade paperback books in the $12-$18 range.) It is difficult to make money from a self-published book of 400 or more pages.